The Why and How of Outsourcing Marketing Automation Services

Every business faces challenges with keeping its sales and marketing processes flowing. The right service provider can help address that immediate problem and add corporate value.

So it is smart to consider outsourcing marketing automation services. But what can you expect from them and how to get started?

Read on to understand how to pick and get started with an marketing automation services team.

Three Common Challenges Cured By Marketing Automation Services

Any combination of the following three challenges are will steal time away from strategic planning and other high-value activities for your business. It’s all very frustrating!

Challenge #1 Marketing and sales technologies for running a competitive business evolve every day. They require lots of time on training to achieve the level of expertise required to optimize the tool.
Challenge #2 You’re not familiar enough with the ecosystem of solutions to assemble a seamless optimized revenue engine.

Challenge #3 You and your staff are too busy to do all the legwork that goes into campaigning and lead development.

If this sounds like your business, you’ve probably been kicking around the idea of outsourcing marketing automation services but aren’t sure where to start. And this human resources issue is only adding to your anxiety.

In such situations, hiring experts on a temporary flexible basis is a sound bet to help navigate the unfamiliar technological waters. The process of getting help is an investment in itself, so read on to understand what you can reasonably expect from a marketing automation services team.

How does outsourcing marketing automation services team add corporate value?

1.) Higher return on your ecosystem. The marketing automation services team is familiar with current cloud software tools that your company invested in and how they work together as a system. So they are prepared to advise and help you get more from those investments.

2.) Critical thinking and instant best practices. A marketing automation services team brings their years of experience supporting other clients with them. They’ve seen and learned from others’ mistakes.

3.) Adoption roadmap. Doing too much at the start is a known hazard of marketing automation platforms. The marketing automation services team sets an adoption plan based on priorities. For example, if handing more inbound leads and getting more meetings is the top priority, they’ll set those routines up in a few days. After this marinades, you’ll move onto the next set of objectives.

4.) Increase productivity. The marketing automation services team is more productive than you’ll ever be in setting up the ecosystem and dialing in marketing automation routines. Because it’s all they do. And, tasks are done by experts so the quality is more thorough. Spam checks, automation tests and QA is their one job. All this aside, you’re free to focus on other tasks that build value for your business.

5.) Cost Advantages. The marketing automation provider will deliver a sweeter deal on marketing automation services because they are making money on the software subscription too.

6.) Motivated To Bring Success. The marketing automation services team has a vested interest in your success and to keep pushing for better results. If you’re successful, your business will expand its use of the core marketing automation systems and other complementary tools. The team wants to be an indispensable partner to your organization by way of ROI justification.

Marketing Automation Service Provider Interview Questions

Many agencies provide marketing automation services. If you find yourself wanting to test the waters of outsourcing, start with interviewing vendors with strong testimonials from their clients. That will be your agency selection short list.

Interview Questions

1. Do you have experience with setting up CRM data synchs and confirming the proper data model to support marketing automation as well as sound email marketing practices?

2. How can you help us use our data to sell and market our products more efficiently.

3. Provide examples where you advised and helped implement marketing and sales automation based on a client’s unique business objectives.

4. Provide details of when you set up lead scoring to qualify leads. How do the corresponding performance charts look that allow executives to keep an eye on progress. (Ask for sample charts, workflow diagrams and business rules)

5. Provide a sample executive dashboard with a combination of email marketing, online marketing, KPI and pipeline tracking. What was the process undertaken with the client to develop the dashboard?

6. How will you go about working with us to create a marketing automation evolution roadmap.

Timeline of your first project – getting started with your marketing automation service provider

Here are typical steps you can expect to undertake with the outsourced digital marketing service.1. Discovery of key business challenges and objectives – Day 1

The marketing automation services team will be briefed about issues, pains and challenges you face.

2. Identify key areas that need attention – Week 1

The marketing automation services team identifies key areas and projects and an action plan.

3. Begin Marketing Automation Setup – Week 2

The time to complete the projects obviously depends on complexity. But here’s a typical schedule you can expect for production and one wave of testing:

By using an outsourced marketing automation services provider, you can successfully overcome management and businesses challenges. And in some cases, you may even be able to cut budgets on extra tools or other inefficient outsourced resources.

Beyond that, there’s another natural benefit of meeting and exceeding your deadlines that stem from two things. First, your provider has a financial motivation of the fees you’re paying for activity. Second, their inherent knowledge and experience in the marketing platform translate to suggestions on how to improve plans for meeting your objectives.

About Jay Adams

Jay is Founder and CEO of Makesbridge, where he focuses on platform innovation and education for the company’s global subscriber base. Prior to founding Makesbridge, Jay was Vice President of Marketing and Business Development at Audiohighway.com; where his teams grew the company’s database from 5,000 to 2.4 million in under 2 years and promoted their music streaming and e-commerce websites.